What is the main purpose of asking 'Why?' in the 5 Whys technique?

• A. To trace root cause rather than stop at symptoms.
• B. To generate more symptoms.
• C. To assign blame.
• D. To conclude after five questions.

Answer: (A)

The main idea behind the 5 Whys is to uncover the true cause of a problem by repeatedly asking why something happened. Each answer leads to another why, guiding you past surface symptoms to the underlying factors in a process or system. The goal is to identify a root cause that, once addressed, would prevent the problem from recurring, rather than stopping at the first explanation, blaming people, or simply tallying five questions. In practice, you continue digging until the deeper cause is found or no deeper meaningful cause emerges, rather than adhering to an exact five-question limit.